It’s been a little under months since I joined the Advisory Board for Mayo Clinic’s brand new Center for Social Media. Time flies! I must say that I’ve been thoroughly honored to be a part of this group and look forward to seeing the vision of change that Mayo has been associated with, continue to thrive.

The Center for Social Media is celebrating its one year anniversary this month, but don’t think they are resting on their laurels in celebratory happiness. Led by the Center’s fearless leader, Lee Aase, the team took a retreat to get focused on what the next steps are for cultivating their innovative vision to help healthcare organizations do better with social media.

Kudos to organizations like Mayo taking the steps to help others learn and DO more! Looking forward to seeing another year of growth and positive impact!

Photo Credit: Kuuan

For the past several weeks I have been working on a few things to freshen up the Pulse + Signal blog and make things easier as well as effective for you all. I realize this is my base of operations and want to make sure that my readers/audience/fellow changemakers get what they need. So with that in mind, here are some things that have been moving on the blog that you may not have noticed:

Pulse + Signal Newsletter

Probably one of the biggest (new) additions has been the Pulse + Signal newsletter that was launched last week. 2011 is officially build mode for me as I work to create things of value – the newsletter is inherently one of those things, however there are some other activities that you will probably want to be in the know about as I move forward. A movement is brewing…

Pulse + Signal Job Board

It’s been a little over a month since we unveiled the job board and I’m pleased to report that it has been coming along nicely (in my opinion, at least). We have had postings from fantastic organizations including the Acumen Fund, Playnormous and the McKesson Foundation. The board is only as good as you all make it so please make sure and spread the word – we are also really interested in making sure schools of public health at universities/colleges know about the board. You can also see latest postings on the sidebar.

Social Media Icons

Finally getting these added! There have been some new additions to ways in which to stay connected with myself, Pulse + Signal and Public Health 2.0 activities & news. One of which being the Facebook Page created for discussions and links. In order to consolidate them into one easy location, I’ve added a set of social media icons that are now visible on the sidebar of the blog. Now, with just one click you can access: the Facebook page, my Twitter account, my profile on Linkedin, my Delicious bookmarks, Pulse + Signal TV (videos, soon to be updated), RSS feed, my presentations on Slideshare and finally email subscription for blog post updates.

Updated Blog Link List

Interested in the blogs I like to read and stay connected with? Well, I’ve gone through and updated/reworked the Link List area to reflect just that. Now the list has a tighter focus and no dead links (phew!). Know of a blog that should be added here that focuses on Public/Health 2.0 issues and ideas? Just let me know.

Hopefully these changes will make things easier for you to stay connected and up to date as things move forward. Please know that I truly appreciate all the support, encouragement, emails and comments that I’ve received over the years and looking forward to many more interactions.

Onward!

It’s official. The remaining members of the Mayo Clinic’s new Center for Social Media advisory board have been chosen and I’m pretty excited about being a part of it.

The Advisory Board for the Mayo Clinic Center for Health Care Social Media includes representatives from various health care roles, including patients, who have been actively using social media, as well as representatives from other industries whose insights will help support the center’s mission.

Members will provide advice and feedback to leadership of the center and will contribute to advancement of practical social media application in health care.

As an organization, the Mayo Clinic has been an important institution in making things happen around better health. I’m happy to be working with a number of great friends and fellow health/medicine luminaries.

Big thanks for all the notes of kudos, encouragement and support that I get from all of you as I continue striving to make a difference.

Slightly departing from the regularly scheduled public health innovation content — this post is part of a blog series on the popular career site, Brazen Careerist, being sponsored by JobSTART101.  They asked Brazen members to answer the question:  What do I wish I knew before I started working?  Here’s my response …

Sometimes I think about my experiences before I graduated college and went into the real world for work and wonder about what I could have done better to prepare myself. Obviously, there are some things that you have to just learn on the job and I certainly did that while I worked at places such as WESTAT, learning more about data analysis in health communication work. Before I dive into what I wish I knew, I would love to point out a few things I think I did which helped me out.

1. Internships: Absolutely valuable. Although my internships ranged from materials engineering apprentice to astrophysicist assistant to data analyst, each of those separate ventures allowed me to become used to being in a professional setting. Interacting with peers, completing tasks and even getting making sure I got to work on time – all made a difference in programming my brain for the real world.
2. Learning from the pros: Make sure you find opportunities to talk to professionals in fields that you are interested in. You will gain valuable insight and possible connections that you wouldn’t have received otherwise.
3. Join the student group of a professional organization: For me, that was becoming part of the Society of Public Health Education (SOPHE) and the American Public Health Association (APHA). I learned an insane amount of material, met fantastic luminaries in the field and created friendships/connections that serve me even today.
4. Hang around your professors: This was something that helped me solidify my interest in public and community health. The folks who were directly imparting knowledge to me on relevant subject matter were people I respected and wanted to stay in touch with. On top of that, good relationships with your faculty may lead to recommendation letters for a number of post graduation activities. And now I have the opportunity to give back.

As for what I wish I knew more about before the real world, one of the main things would probably be me focusing more on time management. It becomes even more important when you get your first “real” job and are given tasks that set the foundation for your career. With so many distractions out there now (Facebook just started to creep out for me during my first gig), it’s important to focus on this. I also wish I knew more about how to take criticism. Sure, there are instances where your supervisor may be having a bad day and dislike every single thing you do – but for those other times when you have great bosses, they just want to see you do better. Internalizing and taking things personally is a lose-lose situation, trust me.

Lastly, creating personal goals for yourself outside of the corporate goals is a good thing to do. In doing this, you create an internal motivator for yourself that ties directly back your performance. Why not learn an advanced Excel operation or take the lead on training future interns like my good friend James Walker did? I guess this could also lean toward being innovative and showing initiative.

Good luck out there!

I must admit, these past few years of my life have been a whirlwind of personal growth, personal loss, professional achievements and a constant journey toward my place in the world. Meeting people whose ideas challenge and strengthen my own, reading books that not only broaden my passions but also encourage my creativity, and finally making strides to understanding what is important in life.

All those things I believe have and will continue to prepare me for some new things happening in my life – namely joining the American Heart Association’s Mid-Atlantic affiliate as their brand new Director of Digital Communications and New Media. An organization that I’m proud to say has been doing quite a bit to improve one of the important things in life: good health. From community events to ongoing advocacy to the popular Red for Women campaign – I’m beyond excited to be joining the ranks of an organization where I can see the good being done and hear about the stories of changed lives. That’s what it’s all about to me.

In recently attending the CDC Health Communication, Marketing and Media conference, I got to sit in on a panel discussing the art of storytelling for public health. It’s one of the subjects that I’m really interested in because it has meaning. Not numbers placed on a chart or crunched to find out how bad a population is doing with a certain illness. It’s the stories of countless lives being changed and affected that makes me rally around public health. I firmly believe the Association has that story to tell.

My good friend Marci Williams has one of those stories:

In my new role I will be looking forward to building a foundation of understanding around social media, innovation and new concepts that will continue to make it a great leading organization for the communities it serves. The Mid-Atlantic affiliate covers North and South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia – the latter two regions having a close place in my heart. It is my hope to be able to align my skills and passions around Public Health 2.0 with the American Heart Association to empower the organization to interact, tell stories and most importantly transform lives for the better with a new awareness.

For those of you who regularly stay updated on things going on in the forward moving world of Health 2.0, health/social media, etc. you are undoubtedly aware of the exciting addition to next year’s South by Southwest Interactive (known to many as SXSW) event. There will be a one-day track devoted to health, giving opportunity for innovative ideas and thoughts to be shared at one of the largest gatherings I know of for all things interactive (technology, media, design, etc.). Check out the Social Health event blog post for more information.

For those of you not familiar with SXSW and its ‘Interactive’ focused series of events – take a look at their website for pretty much all you need to know. From their description:

SXSW® Interactive features five days of compelling presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology, scores of exciting networking events hosted by industry leaders, the incredible new SXSW Trade Show and an unbeatable lineup of special programs showcasing the best new digital works, video games and innovative ideas the international community has to offer.

As you can understand from this brief description – it’s the perfect gathering place for thought leaders, innovators and people interested in taking things to the next level, much like I am aiming to do with public health.

Speaking of things I’m involved with, I am super excited to announce that I have been appointed to the brand new SXSW Health Advisory Board! In this position I will have the opportunity to check out some of the fantastic submissions to the health track and offer additional thoughts/insight. Although a lot of the spotlight now is on healthcare systems and physician-patient relationships – I’m looking forward to seeing ideas planted in the grassroots (no pun intended) efforts of public and community health, where education and communication are key foundations.

Quite a bit of forward movement has occurred since I started writing on Pulse + Signal a few years ago and I am beyond ecstatic to see health being given a voice on a platform as large and influential as SXSW. Not only do I look forward to reviewing the panel submissions but also attending next year in Austin to listen, process and meet the ideas/people pushing the envelope.

A big thanks to Dana Lewis, Shwen Gwee, Tom Stitt and Reed Smith for their hard work to bring about this great addition. Also thanks to all those pioneering in their fields of health to make important change happen.

Last week I had the distinguished honor to be interviewed by the always inspiring Rosetta Thurman – a prominent voice around the issue of Gen Y leadership. Rosetta picked out four “Now Generation” Gen Y leaders who she felt were going to be making waves this year.

During my interview, I talk about my background in science/engineering/public health as well as my passion around Public Health 2.0 – which looks at social technologies and cross disciplinary collaboration. I get a chance to talk about how I got interested in the social media landscape and highlight a few organizations that I think are doing it well (AIDS.gov, CDC, Playnormous and HopeLab).

Stay tuned for the next three leaders as they are similarly profiled throughout the month!

If you get a chance to listen, I would love to hear your thoughts on how I did.

Photo Credit: Timmy Faust

Well, here we are with another decade under our belts – out with the old and in with the new as they say. But before I talk about 2010, I have to say that 2009 was an extremely fantastic year for me. Being kicked off with my first Mobile Tech 4 Social Change meeting in NYC and meeting Katrin Verclas of MobileActive as well as tons of other great minds, a spark was ignited within my entire being to live and be someone of impact. Since that day in February, I embarked on a journey of speaking opportunities, conferences and brainstorming of ideas with fantastic people who are passionate about making use of innovative tools and technologies to impact the health and wellness of the masses.

It was certainly the year you could say I “woke up” to things I want to do and accomplish. Not a bad way to end the first decade of the millennium huh? Now we all get to take inventory of what we have already done and how we want to see ourselves grow in this new year. With the help of some great people that I regularly keep up with (since they’re pretty smart and have some great things to say), such as Chris Brogan, Beth Kanter and Frank Barry – I’ve decided to think broadly about the words that I feel will be guiding my growth in the new year. I encourage you to do the same.

My words for 2010: Educate, Collaborate, and Ignite

Educate

During some self reflection I was doing towards the end of last year about my personality and things I enjoy doing – one of the things I settled upon was the joy I get from informing someone of something new. But education is not just about handing someone a piece of paper and saying “here, hope you can figure out something to do with it”. Last year I got to make this happen by speaking on mHealth at the North Carolina Division of Public Health and presenting on new media for public health at the North Carolina Society of Public Health Education Annual Meeting. I truly hope I continue to do that in 2010 – some great opportunities coming up so stay tuned. It’s about placing information into their hands and minds in the context of being relevant, otherwise it becomes a piece of trivia that may or may not be useful during game night.

Collaborate

This is where I get a real rush of excitement, mainly because for those of you who have met me or hung around me a while, you understand I really enjoy people. That is pretty much at the core of anything I do or will do on a large or small scale. Interacting with people enriches my life and makes life more enjoyable. So in 2010, I really plan on collaborating with like minded individuals to move things forward. Organizations such as Amy Jussel’s Shaping Youth and Playnormous have huge appeal for me! The way I see it, each of us has something to contribute that the other person can’t. That’s one of the main reasons why I try to surround myself with all sorts of people – smarter, more creative and funnier.

Ignite

Remember when I said that the meeting in NYC last year ignited a spark within me? Yeah, I want to help create that feeling for as many people as I can this year. Last year I got to help out with a new program mentoring students at Purdue University on social media. I also was able to go back to my alma mater (University of Maryland) and speak to the new class of public health students about the coming opportunities they will have to innovative and change the field. How cool is that? The world becomes more alive and full of opportunities when you feel purposeful, doesn’t it? No matter what path you take in life or whatever field you choose to grow your expertise – when you care about it, that’s when success arrives.

I would love to hear your own three words or your own thoughts about what you aim to focus on in 2010. I might even challenge you to create your own post about them and send em over to me or here in the comments section. Would absolutely love to hear them!

Photo by: Saxonfenken

So I’m really excited to announce that I was selected to be part of a new social media mentoring program at Purdue University (@mindofandre is my Twitter tag)! Thanks to the wonderful Dr. Mihaela Vorvoreanu, a professor focusing on new communication technologies, I will be partnering up with one of her graduate students to guide them along understanding the social media landscape. I have the honor of connecting with Jennifer Smock (@smocktweets on Twitter), a graduate student earning her Masters in Public Health (MPH). Jennifer’s interests focus on the use of new media to improve the field of public health, with her current research highlighting how the public feels about season flu and H1N1 vaccinations.

Especially within the context of social media, I want to emphasize the term partnership. Although it’s considered a mentoring program, I strongly feel that all of us are learning together regarding this new landscape. I am hardly a guru (or expert, specialist, or any other title that I feel misleads) but I do really enjoy learning everyday and am passionate about finding out how best to apply these new ideas to public health. I’ve been involved in one way or another with social networks and new media for a couple years now so I have an increased understanding and appreciation for what these tools can do.

So please feel free to check out Jenny’s blog, leave comments there and stay tuned for guest posts from her on what she is learning.

As I tell my young nieces and nephews – education is one of those things that no one can take away from you. It’s the universal key to success in life.

Hey folks, it’s no secret that after I was inundated with extensive creativity and innovation at the last San Francisco based Health 2.0 conference, I was bright eyed about games for health. Well, over the past few months I have become an avid fan of one of the companies that demo’d their products – Playnormous. After the conference I had to look them up and was happy to see that their target audience were young kids – helping them to learn healthy habits and ideals in a society where the opposite bombard them constantly through television, the Web and yes even through video games.

I’m always interested to see what new technologies and tools of interactive engagement are being used to further health initiatives and right now the healthy gaming industry is molten lava hot. I don’t have to tell you how well the Nintendo Wii is doing with making huge strides in changing the way people think about exercise. But who’s to say that I don’t want to continue telling you how well things are going?

Which leads me to the reason I wrote this for all of you.

A new blog has been unveiled to the public from the great people behind Playnormous, to bring you fresh, current and interesting points of view on the growing applications of the healthy gaming movement. The blog, healthGAMERS, is focused on taking a look at some of the innovations around game-based technology to improve public health. One of the coolest parts of the blog launch is that Playnormous got in touch with me and asked me to be a co-author! Of course I was thrilled and couldn’t turn it down.

So check out healthGAMERS for those of you interested in how the video/computer/interactive game world is makin waves to improve our health and the health of our kids. For some added coolness, check out a clip of Playnormous being featured on the local ABC news recently. If you are interested in writing for healthGAMERS, please feel free to contact me!

Finally, here is a video of the Playnormous presentation from the Health 2.0 conference breakout session last year. I took this on a Flip camera so it isn’t best quality (will have to turn up the volume) but it’s pretty cool.